Haze of the Night
by Alyssa86InMN
Summary: AU: Kate Beckett is a 3rd grade teacher who has a one night stand with one Richard Castle only to find out the next day how truly connected they are. Complete at 2 chapters for now.
1. Chapter 1

**I posted this on my one-shot story Amoretto, but I extended it, so I thought I'd make it a new fic.**

Slinking around the unfamiliar bedroom, Kate hunted down her missing clothing. She wasn't sure where her right black heel had gone, but she vaguely recalls a heated make out session in the kitchen. She peered around corners, hoping to not run into anyone in the loft. Her late night bedfellow had mentioned a daughter while they threw back shots of tequila at a nearby bar, but she wasn't sure if said daughter was in the apartment or not. Kate crept toward the kitchen and spotted the four inch heels of her Manolos stuck in the toaster. What the hell did they do last night? Grabbing her shoes and heading for the door, she rushed out of the loft and into the elevator that took her to the building entrance where she hoped the cab would be waiting. Rebel Becks might have had one night stands, but Miss Beckett, third grade teacher should know better than to do such a thing, especially on a school night.

Rick Castle woke to a pounding headache. Tequila always left him feeling like he'd been bashed over the head with the bottle instead of drinking the contents. He moaned in agony as he rolled from his back to his stomach, burying his head in the other pillow. The sweet scent of perfume lingered in the fibers of the pillowcase and he was hit with the memories of what he had done the night before. Kate. They talked for hours before drunkenly falling into his bed around one in the morning. The memory of her face seemed foggy, but the scent emanating from the pillow was bringing her profile into focus. She was beautiful. Her hazel eyes sparkled with lust and he knew he would never tire of looking into them. The side of the bed Kate slept on was cool, proving she had left long ago. In the after-haze of ecstasy and exhaustion, he slipped into unconsciousness before getting her phone number and he was more than disappointed about that.

Rick heard the clattering of dishes coming from his kitchen and the loud, hard clinks drilled into his head like nails. Hangovers were hell. Groaning, he trudged out to the living room to request the noisy offender keep it down.

"Hello Darling!" his mother greeted.

Rick winced as her sharp pitched voice clanged around in his head. "Mother, can you keep it down?"

"Richard, you are a grown man with an eight year old child. You should not be waltzing in here early in the morning like you have no responsibilities. What if Alexis had needed you in the middle of the night or what if the poor girl you had in your bed had run into her?"

"Mother, please. Not now." Rick took a seat on a stool and draped himself over the kitchen counter, hiding his face from any light.

"Okay fine. You should eat something though. It will help you feel better. I can make you some toast if you'd like."

Rick's face flushed as the memory of him and Kate devouring each other against the counter popped into his head. He remembered he put her heels in the toaster and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why that seemed logical at the time.

"I think I'll pass for now," he mumbled. "Did Alexis leave for school already?"

"Yes and she told me to remind you that school conferences are tonight and she will be very disappointed if you skip out."

Rick groaned again as he started planning ways to alleviate the hangover before the early evening meeting with his daughter's teacher.

* * *

Kate Beckett wished she had called in sick. Kids are loud, that is a given, but when nursing a hangover after a night of drinking potent tequila, every little noise sounded like a crashing cymbal beside her head. She popped painkillers throughout the day and drank as much water as she could stand and by the time four o'clock rolled around, she felt a little more like herself. It would have been humiliating meeting parents of her students with evidence of her night out written across her face. As she sat at her desk waiting for her first parent to show up, her mind drifted to her late night escapade. As Rick laid on top of her, moving inside her, he worked his mouth against her lips, trailing down her jaw and her neck. He pulled away and his shining blue eyes gazed into hers. Heat pooled in her belly as he called her name.

"Kate?"

She startled when she realized there was someone now in her classroom and felt like she had been thrown overboard in the Arctic Ocean when she realized the man standing before her was Rick, her one night stand.

"Shit," she muttered, her eyes wide and fearful. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Alexis's father," he explained hesitantly.

Kate covered her face with her hands as she mumbled, "I can't believe this is happening. This is a disaster." She fought back a wave of tears. She had royally screwed up. She slept with the parent of one of her students. There had to be rules about that, right?

"Kate, it's fine," Rick attempted to calm her down, by taking a seat across from her and leaning over her desk.

"No it is not!" Kate hissed, revealing her face again and leaning forward more. "This is a horribly unethical situation!"

"We didn't do anything wrong, Kate. We are both mature, single adults who spent a night together. It doesn't have to be the end of the world," Rick explained.

"Can you imagine how awkward this is going to be from now on?"

"It doesn't have to be," Rick proposed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Go on a date with me. We can see where this goes. If it doesn't work out, I am willing to put aside our brief history for the sake of my daughter's education. Plus, I really wanted to see you again. Maybe this is the universe intervening."

"The universe is conspiring to get us together?" Kate asked skeptically.

"It could be. How about I leave you my business card and if you would like to talk more, you can call me, if not, no hard feelings." Rick pulled out his card and stood from his chair to leave.

"What about the conference?"

Rick turned, meeting her eyes and smirked, "Umm, briefly sum up what you were going to say."

"Your daughter is wonderful," Kate spoke honestly, getting transfixed by Rick's gaze.

Rick smiled genuinely and started moving toward the door. "Then that's all I need to know. I hope to hear from you soon, Kate."

He winked as Kate gaped back at him. When he disappeared out the door, a small grin spread across her face and she pocketed the business card for its use after conferences.

 **Tumblr: MonaLyssa33  
Twitter: AlyssaWriting**


	2. Chapter 2

Entering her apartment, she kicked off her shoes and fell back against her front door. What a long and tiring day. Six hours with her students and then another five with their parents. She deserved a drink, but the flood of heated memories hit her as she recalled her previous night spent wrapped around a gorgeous man named Rick. Even drunk, the sex was pretty amazing. What wasn't amazing was finding out her one night stand was the parent of her best student. Sleeping with him definitely complicated matters, but there was some part of her that felt no regret and wanted to see him again. He handed her his business card at that evening's conference and the sudden recollection of it in her back pocket, made it feel like her slacks were on fire. Kate pulled the slip of cardstock out of her pocket and held it between her thumbs and pointer fingers as she examined the raised lettering.

 _Richard Castle_

 _Ruggedly Handsome Writer_

The realization finally hit her. It surprised her that she hadn't put two and two together. Of course Alexis Castle was the daughter of Richard Castle. Why it took her hours to figure out that her One Night Rick was actually her favorite mystery writer, she didn't know. She chocked it up to recovering from the hangover and also sheer exhaustion. The excitement of talking to him again vanished and was replaced with terror. She slept with a world famous author. She slept with Richard Castle.

Rick was crumbling the graham cracker over the chocolate and marshmallow already melting on top of the omelet when his daughter came barrelling down the stairs. Rick didn't understand how Alexis was always wide awake and raring to get on with day the second she woke up. Lord knows it took him more than a couple of times of hitting snooze to get him out of bed to make breakfast.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say my daughter has turned into a trampling elephant the way you attacked those stairs." Rick called out as he flipped the smorelette.

"Sorry Daddy! I'm just excited for school today."

"You've always had a lot of enthusiasm for school, but today seems a little different. What's up, Pumpkin?"

"Miss Beckett is going to take the class to the Natural History Museum! Don't you remember signing the permission slip on Thursday?"

"Vaguely," Rick stated. "Do you think Miss Beckett would like an extra parent chaperone? I have the entire day free and I haven't visited my old friend _T. Rex_ in a while," Rick smiled charmingly as his daughter sighed in defeat, knowing her father would show up no matter what she said.

After breakfast, Rick walked Alexis to her school, letting her run off ahead of him when they reached the entrance. He was excited to see Kate again and hoped his impromptu offer to chaperone wouldn't scare her off. He strode his way down the elementary school's hallway, feeling his heart beat erratically with anxiety as the door to Kate's classroom grew near. What if she refused to speak to him because he decided to surprise her? She still hadn't called him after the awkward meeting at Alexis's conference last week. Maybe that meant she wasn't interested and he was the only one who felt a spark between the two of them. His doubts caused his arrogant gait to look more like the lurk of a hunted animal.

The clang of the morning bell rang throughout the halls and while Rick had reached Miss Beckett's Room 28, he couldn't gather the courage to cross the threshold. He slumped against the brick wall, his hands in his pockets while I tried to talk himself into moving. The clicking sound of heels on linoleum grew louder and he realized too late that it was Kate.

It had been nearly a week since Kate slept with Rick Castle and while part of her desperately wanted to call him, the other part prevented her from dialing his number. Could she risk getting involved with a celebrity writer when she was his daughter's teacher? She had read Page 6 and knew of Rick's playboy reputation. Could she allow herself to be the next notch in his bedpost? Technically she already was a notch in his bedpost, but she wasn't sure if she could trust a celebrated womanizer and seek out more in a relationship. She spent her week toying with the idea of talking to him again and she had finally come to the decision to let the ship sail on, that is until the morning of her class's museum field trip when she found him outside her classroom door.

"Rick!? What are you doing here?" Kate hissed.

Rick startled and gave her a hesitant and guilty smile. "Hi Kate… Fancy seeing you here."

"Why are you here?" she whispered harshly, crowding up to him to keep their conversation more private.

"Alexis told me your class was going on a field trip, so I thought maybe you'd need a parent chaperone and since I…since I work my own hours, I thought I'd volunteer?" his statement sounded more like a question because he didn't know how receptive Kate would be to the idea of him tagging along.

"Is this because I haven't called you? Is that why you are here? What happened to 'no hard feelings'?"

Rick cowered at the wrath of Kate, but gathered a bit of courage and said, "well, my daughter is still your student, so I'm sorry for wanting to be involved in her education."

"Fine," Kate grumbled through clenched teeth before demanding, "Do not make this awkward."

Rick threw up his hands in surrender, "I'll be the perfect gentleman."

Rick opted to sit near his daughter on the bus rather than by Kate, hoping to prove he was going to be gentlemanly and give her space. Alexis bubbled with energy as she told a story about Landon Meyers from the fourth grade pulling pranks on the librarian. Rick listened intently but he could feel Kate's eyes on him while he interacted with Alexis and her best friend Paige. He chose to play hard to get and deliberately ignored her. As the bus neared the museum, Rick finally decided to glance at Kate from across the aisle. His eyes sparkled as he smiled softly. Kate blushed but couldn't turn away from his gaze. Her heart jumped in her chest and fluttered about. The jerking stop of the bus, broke the connection between the two and Kate went into Responsible-Teacher mode again.

A tour guide took over in leading the class of twenty-six around to the various exhibits within the museum. The two other parent chaperones, besides Rick, handled crowd control on either side of the herd of children leaving the recent in back. Kate crossed her arms over her chest and reluctantly walked beside Rick.

Kate bit her lip and quickly glanced at Rick. He walked with his hands behind his back, his face pensive but he didn't seem to be paying attention to the guide.

"I'm sorry I didn't call," Kate whispered.

"I get it, the situation is a little confusing and awkward. As I said before, no hard feelings."

"You have to understand that I really wanted to call and so many times I almost did, but you are Richard Castle of all people. I am just a third grade teacher, _your daughter's_ third grade teacher. I couldn't risk…" Kate paused as she tried to sort out her words.

"Nope, I said I got it, Kate. You can't risk being seen with a notorious playboy, who sleeps with every woman he can and avoids commitment. I get it." Rick sneered.

"No!" Kate whispered loud enough it might as well have been yelled. The group of children and three adults turned from the display of dinosaur fossils in confusion at the ruckus. "I'm sorry…" Kate hesitated to come up with an excuse, "I'm just so sad the dinosaurs had to die." Kate blushed at her lame attempt of a cover-up.

Rick bit back a smirk before hooking his arm around Kate's elbow and dragging her across the exhibition room to a more secluded area.

"You were saying?" Rick prompted.

"I will admit I have been hesitant about calling because of the stories I've seen in the papers about you, but it wasn't until I saw you with your daughter today that I was reminded of the long conversation we had at the bar that night. I'm hoping the man I spoke to that night is the real you. I didn't even realize you were _the_ Richard Castle until I saw your business card. So to get to the point, my initial reaction the next morning was that I wanted to get to know you more. I still do."

Rick's grin widened with delight, "Kate, will you go on a date with me tomorrow?"

Kate smiled and stole a quick kiss from his lips before replying, "Yes. Now I think we should get back to our chaperoning duties."

 **Tumblr: MonaLyssa33**  
 **Twitter: AlyssaWriting**


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